


30 Day Challenge

by osointricate



Series: Yours, Mine, & Ours 'verse [6]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Character Study, Drunk Kissing, Gen, M/M, Unbeta'd, character in grief, tagging as I post
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-19 05:33:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 14,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5955538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/osointricate/pseuds/osointricate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daily one word prompts set in the You Can Do This timeline.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. "Aardvark"

**Author's Note:**

> Because there's still a lot of this universe left in me. I'm having a hard time writing anything else. Jack's not there, what's the point?
> 
> My goal is to try to stay under 1,000 words for each of these. My short-story skills are very much lacking. But I'm using these as daily warm-ups/tools to get to my daily 1k word count goal while I write the other longer bits and I can't guarantee any of them will be any good. I'm just going to write-read-post. They are going to be a bunch of mid-timeline timestamps. The goal (challenge) is to post everyday, so cross your fingers.
> 
> :D

First words are important.  They are important milestones in any child’s life.  

Charlie’s first word was apparently ‘da-da.’  When Danny had heard that, he had never been more sure to not take Charlie away from Stan.  Charlie was a daddy’s-boy for sure, and that was good thing, considering he had three from the time he was four years old.

Eric’s, way back in the day, was actually ‘Dan.’  Danny had walked around ecstatic for days after that.  He was his nephew's favorite so much that his name was his first word.  Danny already adored the kid, but that solidified things for sure.

Nahele told them a story once, about his mother sitting him down and telling him all sorts of stories about when he was a baby - things she knew she’d never be able to tell him when he was older and wanted to know - and said his first word was ‘mama.’  He wasn’t sad when he told the story, but proud.  He would always have that story - and connection - to his mother.  It was his first word.  First words were important.

Like “Danno.”  Grace was a late talker, well past her first birthday when she started talking.  She was actually walking around nice and strong before she started talking.  Danny would always get onto Rachel, telling her to refer to themselves as “mom” and “dad” and she never did.  “Danny” or “Daniel” led to Grace wanting his attention and calling him “Danno.”  

Needless to say it stuck.

First words are important, at least in the McGarrett-Williams (he wasn’t going to concede on the name thing just yet) clan.  Nine months old, however, is way too young for a first word, and yet here was Steve bragging that Jack had spoken.

“He just babbles, babe,” He tried to tell him.  “He can listen better than he can talk right now.”

“He said ‘nap!’” Steve insisted as he plopped them down on the couch next to Danny.  Danny’s bad leg was propped up on the coffee table, his wounds still fresh.  “I asked him if he had a good nap and he said ‘mmm nap!’”

“So he was repeating what you said, not that he knows what it means.”

“Why are you being so negative about his first word?”

“I’m not being negative, I’m just saying it’s probably not his first word,” Then he leaned into Jack’s vision, and Jack drew back into himself, grinning.  “Can you say ‘nap?’”

Jack only reached forward to pat Danny’s nose.  Danny moved his face so he could blow a raspberry on Jack’s arm and the baby pulled back with another deep grin.

“Is that ‘Danno?’” Steve tried.  Jack looked up to him, wide, smart brown eyes.  “Who is that?”  Jack pulled back in and grinned again.  He dove his head into Steve’s neck, still rubbing his nap out of his eyes.

“So am I going to be ‘Danno’ and you’re going to be ‘daddy?’”  Danny asked, leaning down on Steve’s shoulder to get closer to Jack’s face.  Jack noticed him and then turned his head away quickly, only to look back just as quick in a short game of peek-a-boo.  Danny made an exaggerated gasp and Jack sat back up, pushing away from Steve’s chest with a happy sound.

“Why not?” Steve asked.  He focused on Jack again, “Who am I?”

“‘Mandur,” Jack told him right away.

Steve’s mouth fell open, then he cupped Jack’s head, pulling him towards his neck quickly.  He turned to Danny, who was sharing a similar wide mouth.  

“You heard that, right?”

“Yes I did.”

“That was a really good first word,” Steve praised, and Jack sat back up again, face slack.  Then he saw Steve smiling and he smiled again and plopped back down on his chest.

“I thought you said his first word was ‘nap,’” Danny said, amused at Steve’s antics.  

“Nope, you’re right.  Just babbles.”

“No, I think you’re on to something.”

“His first word was ‘Mander,’” Steve said, refusing to look at Danny, but with a obnoxious grin.  He knew exactly what he was doing.

“I’m going to go with ‘nap.’”

He sat Jack back up, “Who am I?”

“‘Mandurrrr,” He said again, this time with a bit of a growl.

“Alright!” Steve said smiling wide, holding his hand up, “High five!”

Jack reached forward with a grin to smack Steve’s hand.

“Did you have a good nap?” Danny tried.

Jack lifted both hands in celebration, “Mmm nap!”

Steve grimaced as Danny celebrated with Jack, giving him his own high five.

First words were important.  Which is why they would always argue over what Jack’s first word was every time the topic came up.  Because first words are important.  Important and vital and, later in his life, Jack would smile every time it came up because the story behind his first word was more important, in his opinion.


	2. "School"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set just after Danny got hurt, but after Nahele got back home

Before Daisy Kaula went to work for the McGarrett-Williams (the Williams-McGarretts?  Steve and Danny.  Before she went to work for Steve and Danny) she had no idea what she wanted to do with her life.  She was on her second year of college, but she had started a year late because she kicked around and did nothing for a year.  That was a lie, she did stuff, she mostly helped her sister corall her children and ran one of her cousin’s shave ice stands, and surfed.  She surfed a lot.

But then she started school, and her sister demanded she pay less attention to her nieces and nephews (she had four of them) and more attention to her life.  She kicked around marine biologist, business, and photography, but nothing really seemed to catch her fancy.

When she started work as a nanny, her sister disapproved, saying she was going to start paying attention to babies again, and lose focus on school.  Truth of the matter was she enjoyed keeping track of a bunch of kids.  It gave her a sense of purpose she had been lacking.  This was her life, and it was a good, rewarding life.

( _“I knew you were cut out for the whole nanny business,”_ Kamekona had told her. 

_ “Well, how did you know that?” _

_“I’m good with people, wahine, I’m good with seeing who they are,”_ He told her, wise and knowledgeable.   _“You’ve always been a good kid and you’ve always been good with kids.  It’s my side of the family that’s questionable.”_

_“Nah,”_ She reached forward and shoved him a bit.   _“You’re the famous one with your shrimp trucks and your shaved ice and your face everywhere.”_

_“Maybe next I’ll start a babysitting service,”_ He mused, boasting a bit.

She laughed, _“I think you should stick to the boat tours as your next endeavor, Kame.”_

_"Just no business sense,"_  He shook his head with a tease.)

When she first started working, she was an education major.  Teaching children is like nanny-ing.  It was close enough.  She went to every class, went to every lecture, and it just… it fell short of what she wanted.

It was mid-March when she decided what she wanted to do with her life.  She was two years into school, turning twenty two in the fall, and she finally knew what she wanted to do.

Nahele sat quiet, picking at his meal.  She had Jack in his high chair, feeding him applesauce that he greedily ate up, Grace and Charlie out with their other parents for the night, but Nahele just wasn’t eating.

Which.  

Well, that was strange for him.  Usually he’d be on his second helping by now.

“Are you okay?” She asked him.

He looked up at her, wide eyed, before sighing.  “Yeah,” He said.

She didn’t believe him, “You know Danny’s going to be okay, right?”

Steve was with him now, his second knee surgery was “textbook,” and he was recovering in the hospital for the night.

“I know,” He said, poking at his rice.  It looked like he hadn’t even taken a bite.

“Then what’s wrong?”

“Just happy to be back,” He said a bit sadly.  

She nodded, understanding.  He had just been pulled out of a place where he was safe and loved, thrown across the state, to a whole different island, and it was a week-long ordeal that no one was particularly happy with.  Grace had been livid, and Steve was gone the whole time (in a move that Daisy approved of) and Danny’s blood pressure was “too high for the amount of pain killers I’m on.”  Daisy had felt completely useless.  She took care of the babies, stepped in while Steve was gone, but she felt useless, knowing this kid she had grown so fond of had his life swept out from under him.  Again.  It wasn’t fair.

“This is your home, you know,” She told him.  

“I know,” He said again, staring down at his food.  

“You know Kamekona was homeless when he was a kid,” She said quickly, wondering if knowing that would mean he’d be able to talk to her cousin.  The two of them had an easy relationship, and Kamekona really seemed to like him.  (Daisy had to agree.)  Sometimes you just had to talk to someone that  _ knew. _  “Your age, I think.”

He looked up, curious, “I know.”

Good.

“My family tried to help, but…” She trailed off.  “Anyway, this one storm blew in and they came to our house to wait it out, and I remember thinking that the space was tight, but doable.  I asked my dad why they didn’t just move in with us.”

“What’d he say?”

She grinned, “‘They are just too stubborn.’”

He let out a huff and grinned.

“Don’t be stubborn, Nahele,” She told him.  “This is your home.”

“They could take me away again,” He said, grin gone, focus back on his food, and voice shaky.

“That doesn’t mean this place stops being your home.”

He played with his food for a long moment, and Jack smacked the high chair, demanding another bite.  She switched her focus while Nahele digested that information.  It was going to take a whole lot of work, mostly from Steve and Danny, before he came to fully accept that as fact.

“Thank you,” He finally said.  Then he finally took a bite, and quickly after that he got up and got seconds.  Daisy felt like she had done good work that night.

The next afternoon she marched up to the registrar's office and asked what it would take to become a social worker.


	3. "Run"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After family sessions and Charlie's custody case

Grace and Steve had been training for almost two months.  Actual training.  With weights and stop watches and the whole nine yards.  In the summer, HPD puts together a marathon to raise money for the widows and orphans fund.  Steve ran every year, placed impressively somewhere in the top ten every time.  Aunt Kono ran too, and the two of them always had a bit of a rivalry about it.  They’d go out and cheer them on, and then they’d go get shaved ice, and then everyone would get dressed up and go out just because they could.

Grace was fourteen.  She was finally old enough to compete.  Aunt Kono was heavy with her pregnancy, and Steve was ecstatic when Grace announced she wanted to give it a shot, and Danno signed the permission slip, and it was decided. 

She had one obstacle.

“I would like to make a deal,” She said, steadfastly standing in the kitchen while Steve and Danno did the dishes.

Danny raised an eyebrow at her, “Do you really think you’re in any kind of position to be making deals?”

Grace gulped.  It was still June and she and Nahele had just been grounded for the entire month of July.  Other than Cheer rehearsals and training days, she wasn’t allowed to do anything.  The only problem was the marathon was on July 23rd, well within the widow of her grounding-period.  She was going to fight to run until she couldn’t fight anymore.

Steve smiled softly at Danno’s tone, then, with a deep steady tone, “What is it?”

“Does being grounded mean I don’t get to run in the marathon?” She asked.

Steve blinked, and she hoped that realization that the last two months of preparation would be going to waste if they said ‘yes.’  He turned to Danno and Danno looked up to him with a sigh.  

Then he turned toward Grace, “What’s your deal?”

“A week of being grounded in August as long as I can have that Saturday,” She said, biting her lip.  

Danno’s eyebrows went up, “I was expecting ‘I’ll do the dishes everyday, dad,’ or ‘I’ll take that summer math course I’ve been fighting you on, dad.’”

Grace gulped again.  

Danno turned back to Steve who shrugged, and then they did that annoying thing where they talked with minute facial expressions and shoulder movements and came out of it like they’d been talking for hours.  Grace briefly wondered if she’d ever be able to have that with anyone.

“Alright,” Danno started, flinging his drying towel into the room.  “Here’s the new deal.  You can run the marathon, if and only if, you do the July math course.”

She sighed.  She really didn’t want to do the math course.  That remedial thing at the community college for high schoolers that Danno came home excited about.  It was like summer school and Grace dreaded it.  It did, however, mean that she’d be out of the house more often than she thought she would be, (which meant she got more time with her phone!) and, most importantly, it meant that she’d get to run in the marathon.

“Is it too late to sign up?” She asked with a grimace.

“Nope, the last day is the second,” Danno said, a bit excited.

She sighed again, steering herself.  A remedial math course was nothing.  It was twice a week for four weeks and _she’d get to run._

“Okay,” She said.  “You got a deal.”

Danno smiled like he just won a prize.

“You know what this means though, right Kiddo?” Steve asked.

“What?” She was nervous all the sudden.

Steve turned to her, face serious and stern, “Training is back on.”

She grinned.  Because that was _such a hardship_.  Training with Steve was fun.  It meant sweat and muscles aching, and being stronger than anyone else at Cheer training days.  It meant time alone with Steve; Nahele was choosing to spend his summer post-baseball sleeping in.  Time alone with Steve had become more important to her since their family sessions.  He had become a father to her, end of story.

Step-father, technically, and not even that, because they weren’t married and they were being idiots about it, but that was an aggravation for another day.  She had just won back her marathon, she wasn’t going to push it today.

Steve smiled back at her, obviously just as excited for training as she was and Danno rolled his eyes dramatically.

“You two and your cardio addiction.”

Steve chuckled, “‘Cardio addiction?’”

“Yes!  You both are insane to want to wake up before the sun is up and run until you can’t breathe anymore, but fine!  Have at it!”

Grace sighed, “I guess I’m lucky to have Steve, then.”

Steve grinned, his humble one that he wore whenever one of the kids would say something that made him out to be awesome, and turned back to the dirty dishes.

“Yes you are,” Her father said, in that ridiculous, love-sick tone that Grace was actually really glad to hear.  Steve glanced over at Danno, and Danno’s smile turned into a grin, and Grace fought the urge to roll her eyes.  

“You guys are ridiculous,” She told them.  She was saying that phrase a lot lately.  Her father ridiculously in love was a good thing and it made her giddy.

Steve pulled back from the sink with wet, soapy hands, reaching out for her, “I’ll show you ridiculous!”

“You better run,” Danno warned with a smile and a chuckle.

She squealed and dashed around the island to get away from Steve, Danno stepping out of their way, and Grace ended up covered in dish soap.  Steve’s shirt was soaked too, once she had gotten to the sink with a splash and pulled out a soapy sponge.  They faced off, squealing and happy, until dripping and drained.  They spent more time cleaning up the kitchen than it would take to do the dishes.

It made the next morning all that much better.  He’d wake her up with Navy drills and then they’d fall in time with their strides and they’d shut off the whole world and… time with Steve was important to her.  She wanted to run in the marathon so badly, dreamed about it, it was the one good thing to look forward to for all of July.  But she had to admit: getting to run with Steve again was an important byproduct of jumping over obstacles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> blah


	4. "Shell"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been so nervous to write anything from Chin's point of view because he is a man of few words. So I took a stab at it.

Sometimes, after a trauma, a person retreats back into themselves.  They turn all their pain and confusion and anger and disappear inside their own heads.  When loss is involved, grief takes a number of forms.  Destruction.  Denial.  Depression.  Blend it all together and it’s a whirlpool of hurt that pulls you under faster than you can swim.

If it weren’t for his family at Five-0, Chin Ho would have drowned years ago.  

Danny stood as a support stand whenever he needed the boost, Steve treated him with kindness and understanding - and then treated him no different than before, but reconnecting with Jerry was a turning point in his grief.  A friend who always wore a smile when he saw him, a friend that reminded him of better times.  He inspired him to pull out his trumpet again, to open his home to new people (a home where his wife died… there were still days he couldn’t go into the kitchen to save his life,) and to try to find reasons to smile again.

Kono… well Kono was what she always was, steadfast and solid and strong and kind and sweet.  She hadn’t given up on him during his HPD scandal, and she hadn’t given up on him during his grief over Malia.  She believed in him, in his goodness, even when Chin looked in the mirror and found it nowhere in sight.  She prodded at him until he found the goodness inside him again.  Kono was a light in the dark and he’d spend the rest of his life trying to be the same for her. 

She was his best friend.

They all chose to stick with him, to defend him, to help him and to love him.  Cousins he’d known his whole life still wouldn’t talk to him, but his little (growing) family loved him and wouldn’t leave him behind.

He had many, many good days since Malia was killed.  Days where he saw remnants of his old self, glimpses that maybe he was on the right track.  But when it was a bad day… there wasn’t much he could do but let the current take him away.

The second page turned was Nahele’s love of bikes.  The kid knew engines, he’d give him that.  From months of working on Steve’s car, no doubt.  There was spark in the kid’s eyes when Chin had pulled a muffler off the back of his old roadster.  A spark that Chin recognized because he once had the same spark in his eyes.

Fascination and excitement and joy.  Things Chin struggled to find even on his best days.

He knew that Steve and Danny both were worried about Nahele, were constantly trying to pull him out of himself, help him to find himself.  

Almost every Thursday afternoon, all spring long, Chin watched and Nahele learned more, asked better questions, put together a bike out of almost pure instinct of what to do.  He listened as the kid would let out tidbits about his past.  Little, half a thought sentences, along with Steve and Danny’s observations and knowledge on the subject, painted Nahele as a traumatized teenager who had just let himself power down instead of letting himself feel.  He walked around wearing a mask… not a mask, because he had moments where emotions were written all over his face.  It was more like...

A shell.  A quiet, familiar shell.  Like looking in a mirror.  All these painful things that this kid had gone through, and he came out of it sweet and timid and kind.  All good things that Chin started to recognize in himself.  

His grief made him kill an unarmed man, and his grief made him throw himself in his friend’s hardships.  If he could save them from their demons, then his were worth it.  If he could watch Kono fall in love and fight for it and feel joy at the sight, then he could welcome joy into other parts of his life.  If he could welcome an old, childhood friend back into his life, there was still good in him.  If he could chase his father’s killer and not succumb to killing him… there was hope for him yet.  If he could love his family with a dedication that would withstand the toughest waves, he could overcome anything.

If Nahele could just…

If he could open himself up, come out of his shell…

Chin was a man of few words, but that did not mean his actions held less weight.

Nahele snapped the break line into place, and Chin let the last of his pain go.  He forgave himself for losing Malia and he forgave himself for killing her murderer and he decided to let a kid with a bright smile into his circle of family.  The family he would do anything for.

Including coming out of his own, deep, dark, warm shell.  He took a deep breath, pushed at the last of his pain, pushed it aside, pushed it away, and then sighed with relief at the forgiveness and it was for the love of a boy that he was proud to call ‘nephew.’

Family was everything, and family was worth the struggle.


	5. "Blanket"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops. 1,300 words. Went over my goal. Oh well.

Since Danny was very, very little, he’s enjoyed the comfort and joy of sleeping under a mountain of blankets.  Fluffy comforters, familiar and worn afghans, warm fuzzy things with graphic designs on them; he enjoyed them all, and he enjoyed them all at once.

Of course one of the things he hated about Hawaii was the fact that he was about to die of heat stroke with anything more than a sheet and comforter, and even then there were nights that was too much.  Early on he couldn’t afford to run the air conditioner twenty-four-seven, and fans only did so much, so he had to adjust and he hated it.  He had slept in a cocoon of fabric his whole life and now he had to re-learn how to fall asleep.

Nights spent too hot, nights spent too cold, all in an effort to find his new Ideal Way To Sleep.  A different combination every few days.  Grace used to make fun of him, but goddamn it he hated Hawaii.

Eventually he got used to it.  Turns out he enjoyed sleeping without a shirt (something he had never done before moving to Hawaii) and found he liked the simplicity of a sheet and comforter (sure made doing laundry easier.)  He also had to admit that a mattress that didn’t live most of it’s life folded up inside a couch probably had something to do with it.  

His mattress with Steve was his ideal mattress.  The one he wanted a few years ago but then Steve went and made his car explode (okay, okay, it was terrorists, whatever) so he sacrificed comfort for a better house and an awesome Christmas for Grace.  

2015 was an expensive year between buying a house and medical bills and moving in with Steve and a trip for six to New Jersey.  2016 was shaping up to be expensive too, with more medical bills (that hopefully the state would be covering, come on, he was captured by pirates) and legal fees.  Steve wanted to buy a car, on top of it all.

That mattress though?  That mattress, oversized and strong and pillow-topped, that mattress was incredible.  It held all six of them, (a memory that Danny was happy to have for the rest of his life,) and it let the two of them spread out, and it let Steve set up this complicated system of pillows for Danny’s leg, and still let Steve toss and turn (those first few nights home from the hospital were rough on both of them, unable to sleep because of Danny’s way too close of a call) without jostling Danny.

Moving to Hawaii meant re-learning how to fall asleep.

Sleeping with Steve meant doing all that over again.

“You ass!” Danny said in the middle of the night, pulling at the sheet.  “Give me some!”

“You have plenty,” Steve mumbled.

“We did not have this problem before Christmas,” Danny huffed.  “We were walking on eggshells around each other in here, and we did not have this problem.”

“There isn’t a problem, Danny,” Steve finally turned over, facing him with his game face on, pushed up on his elbow.  Danny braced himself for one of their aguments.  “You have plenty of sheet, you just insist to wrap it around you like you’re a burrito.”

“It’s the only way I know how to sleep!”

“You’re ridiculous-”

“I get cold!”

“Then let’s turn off the fan-”

“We’re not turning off the fan!”

“Then what?  We put two smaller sheets on the bed?” Steve asked, then he rolled his eyes.  “Please don’t take that suggestion seriously.”

“You’ve got three-fourth’s of the sheet over on your side, and I’ve only got this pitiful… thing!” He flopped the little bit of sheet he still had left around in front of him.  Then he sighed and huffed again.  “Why are you so far over there anyway?”

“What are you talking about?”

“We sleep in the middle!  You’re practically on the edge!”

“I don’t want to-” He bit his lip, stopping himself.  He was about to say something real, and he stopped himself.  Danny sighed.

“Don’t want to what?”

Steve’s leg bounced for a second, like he was debating, trying to talk himself into talking.  He was doing a thousand leagues better about the whole actually talking about things that matter thing, but Danny knew he still… he still had to fight himself.

Steve let out a sigh, “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“‘Hurt me?’” Danny repeated.  Then it clicked.  “Steve, my bruises were gone a week ago, and the only ones left are around my knee.  My stitches have healed enough that some jostling in bed isn’t going to open them up.  It’s not like the first couple nights anymore.”

“Yeah but your knee-”

“My knee is going to be okay.” 

Steve sighed, then chewed the inside of his lip.

“What’s this really about?”

He sighed yet again and let himself lay back down, this time facing Danny.  Danny turned his head to look at him.  He may be healing, but he’s no supposed to lay on his right side yet, his knee and ribs still the worst of it.  The look on Steve’s face made him wish he had the all-clear, though.

“I was terrified when you-”

Danny reached out, slid his hand along the mattress, until he had his hand on Steve’s forearm in comforting grip.  Steve moved their hands around until their fingers were entwined and Danny smiled softly.

“...you got hurt and I-”  He wasn’t looking Danny in the eye.

“I’m okay,” Danny whispered.  “I’m right here.”

“I know, I just-”

“I’m okay,” He said again.

“I know,” He looked up at Danny then, “I don’t know what I’ll do if something worse ever happens to you.”

“Worse than getting kidnapped and tortured by pirates?” He tried for funny.  “I fell in the water too, that’s like walking the plank.”

“Danny,” Steve whispered.  “You know what I mean.”

“I know,” He said, and he did.  “So that means you pull away?”

Steve rolled his eyes again, dropping them from Danny’s.  Then he took a deep breath in, but still didn’t look up at Danny.

“I can’t control accidents, Steve, but I don’t plan on going anywhere.”

Steve smiled, soft and sweet, and his eyes closed.  “I know that.”

“Good,” Danny said.  “I mean it.”

Steve’s smile widened but he didn’t open his eyes.

“You weren’t the only one that was scared, you know.”  Steve’s eyes finally opened, worried and shocked.  “I kept wishing you’d hold me,” He confessed.  “In that container, running a fever of who-knows-what, that's all I wanted.  You haven’t done that yet.  You’ve kissed me and hugged me and carried me, but Steve, you haven’t held me.”

He made a face, something between realization and apologetic, and he scooted towards Danny instantly.  Then he paused, looking down at Danny, where his bandages used to be, down towards his knee.

“Oh come on,” It was Danny’s turn to roll his eyes.  Then he turned over onto his left side, (the only truly comfortable position he could get himself into,) and reached back for Steve.  “I need my blanket.”

“You need a blanket?” Steve asked.  

“Yeah,” Danny mused.  “You.”

It was a couple, long, seconds before he felt Steve move behind him.  Danny moved his head, letting Steve adjust the pillow, and gripped Steve’s wrist, pulling it around him.  He pulled it back, off of Danny’s ribs (which was both endearing and maddening) only to let his hand rest on his hip.  Danny could live with that compromise, lining up their fingers together again.

He leaned back, then, resting himself on Steve, letting him hold him up, and wow talk about perfect, no pain, position. 

“Don’t pull away again, okay?”

He felt Steve nod, then bury his face in Danny’s neck.

“You take too much sheet when you do,” Danny teased, hoping to lighten the moment.

He snorted into his neck, “You had plenty of sheet.”

“You and I are going to have a talk about what fifty-fifty means in the morning.”

“Yeah, yeah, I figured.” 


	6. "Lotion"

Steve was in trouble.  

He had Mrs. Whittaker’s checklist, he had bought books, he had all the right items needed to help a newborn through his first month of life.  He also had Danny.  Danny who taught him how to wrap Jack up, taught him how to cut his fingernails, taught him how to give him a bath, the difference between snug and too tight on his diaper.  He could get overly fussy about what was right and wrong to do, brief memories of babysitting Joan, a handful of movies… 

But Steve was in trouble.

Not because he was in over his head; he imagined that he would be, expected it.  He knew that he’d be stressed and sleep deprived and BUD/s class served him well those first few weeks.  A little sleep deprivation felt like an old shirt.

Steve was in trouble for one, simple, earth-shattering reason: he had fallen in love with Jack.

It didn’t take long.  It took a span of maybe two nights.  Jack was supposed to be temporary, until Leia could find him a semi-permanent placement, and Steve went and fell in love with him.  

He was too cute, his dark eyes already bright and smart, his cheeks chubby and sweet.  He was this tiny, little thing that just… he was so  _ dependant  _ on Steve.  For food, for hygiene, for a million things Steve didn’t realize went in to care of a newborn.

Like snot.  Snot was an issue Steve didn’t see coming.  Literally.  One sneeze and it was everywhere, and Steve made a face and Danny laughed and Steve’s heart ached at how easy it all was.  

Oh, and how it made Steve feel whenever Danny was holding Jack.  Jack would nuzzle and burrow and dive his way into Danny’s chest and Danny would look down and smile this soft little smile that made things stir inside Steve that had long ago been settled.  Danny was a great father, and he was a natural with babies, and Steve was doing everything in his power to keep himself from melting.  He wasn’t succeeding very well.

There was also the lotion.  Babies apparently needed lotion; their skin was growing so fast and so quickly it needed the extra help.  And Jack was  _ so soft. _  He’d lay him flat on his bed and gently rub lotion into his legs, his arms, his belly, and Steve would watch and Jack would grow comfortable and tired at the act, eyes drooping in an exceedingly adorable way.

The first time the lotion routine came into their lives it was the second night.  Jack had fallen asleep while Steve smoothed the lotion into his skin, and Steve spent at least another half hour running the back of his fingers along Jack’s skin.  It was the busiest his life had ever been, and he had a thousand things to do, and here he was completely enraptured by a one month old.   He didn’t know if he had ever felt something so soft, so sweet, so… so…  Jack was adorable and his life had been placed in Steve’s hands and when that happened, Steve grip would tighten.

Steve was in trouble.

“I know I said two weeks for Jack at that max,” Leia said, one night in his kitchen, signing him off his temporary guardianship, now that his foster care training had been completed.  He was a full-time foster-father.  It was daunting and humbling and…  “But it’s probably going to be a bit longer.  For as long as he’s going to be in foster-care, I’d really like to place him in a home that could care for him long-term.”

“How long?” Steve’s heart soared. 

“His mother’s sentence is fifteen years.” 

Fifteen years.  He’d be a teenager, he’d be Nahele’s age, and he could stay here, where Steve could watch him grow, and Steve could love him, and that much time with a child he’d always be in his life and, and, and

“What if I just took him full time?”

“Steve, I know your situation with Nahele is unique, but he’s fifteen.  That’s three years, and he’s an older boy.  I’m so glad he has you but… This is fifteen years.  This is a long-term commitment with an infant.”

“I realize that.”

“Steve-”

“Ma’am, I don’t make decisions on a whim.”

So Jack became semi-permanent and Steve was overjoyed.  He was in trouble.

Of course the night it was all official that he was staying was the night his fever spiked.  He was miserable, the poor baby.  He couldn’t get comfortable, and he’d push away from Danny, and he’d scream every time they’d re-position him.  

“Every kid gets sick, Steve,” Danny tried to reassure him.

“Yeah, but this kid got sick the moment he moved into my house,” He said as Jack whined.  “They are going to realize that placing children with me before my certification was finished was a risky move, and then I’ll get penalized, and Nahele will have to go back to a group home and-”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Danny intrrupted.  “I”m the pessimistic one in this marriage, got it? Do not steal my thing.  They are not going to take your kids away because one of them has a fever.  Even babies get fevers.”

It was certainly the worst night of Jack’s short little life, being poked and prodded and suffering a fever and ear aches and medicine.

But then Steve laid him back and gave him a lotion bath, hoping it would sooth him enough he could fall asleep. He started with his toes, and then his back, and his chest, and the whole time Jack had his dark eyes watching Steve, his mouth ready with a scream, but Steve went light and slow.  He didn’t fall asleep, but it was enough for Steve to curl around him and lightly run the back of his fingers up and down his arm so he could rest.

Steve was in trouble because he wanted him.  Steve didn’t let himself want things, especially not people, because they just came and went and Steve couldn’t do anything about it.  Jack was here, and as long as he did everything right, he could stay.  It was so easy to just...   Two weeks and Jack was his, completely, thoroughly; Jack had taken a hold on him and Steve was just along for the ride.

He was in trouble; he wanted something but, for once in his life, Steve liked it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> blah again. I'm going to blame the headache.


	7. "Hoodie"

It was already cold the moment they stepped off the plane.  He had an old sweatshirt of Steve’s that read NAVY in big, block letters.  When Steve had handed it to him back in Honolulu, he thought it ridiculous.  Then they got stuck in a Colorado airport, and it was already cold, and he dug his hands into the sleeves to fight it off.

“You’re going to freeze,” Grace told him as they found seats and waiting for news on their flight.  “The east coast in the winter?  For a native Hawaiian that’s never left the islands?  Yeah.  You’re gonna to freeze.”

“None of that is my fault,” He grumbled back, plugging in his phone in a precious plug they had all hoarded.

“Just wait if it snows,” She cooed.  “Have you ever seen snow?”

Nahele shook his head, “Nope.”

“You’ve never seen snow?” Danny asked.  Then his face turned excited.  “It’s snowing right now.”

“What?”

He nodded, then he jumped up.  “Steve, stay with the stuff and the baby.  We have to go find a window.”

“Why?” Charlie asked.

“It’s snowing,” Danny told him, excitedly.  He was already standing up and moving his bag to his chair.  Then he held out his hand to his son, “Come on.”

Charlie jumped up, excited to do something.  Charlie pulled Grace along with him, and they made a few steps before Danny stopped and held out his hand to Nahele, “You too.”

Nahele grinned, got up, but didn’t hold Danny’s hand.  That was too… too… too much.

Snow was incredible.  He’d seen movies and pictures, of course.  Even, on occasion, weather reports from the mainland, but to see it?  To actually see it?  It was incredible.  It was amazing how something so soft and easy could shut down entire city infrastructure for days.  Standing by the window was colder, and he buried his hands in the sweatshirt pocket, but it was to gorgeous to leave.

“Is it going to snow in Jersey?” Grace asked.

“It’s supposed to,” Danny said, excitedly.  Then he turned down to Charlie.  “You’ve seen snow before, right bud?”

“Once, but it wasn’t like this,” He said seriously, nose flat against the glass.  “Daddy and I threw it at each other though.” 

“Snow ball fights are fun,” Danny said back, just as seriously.  “But my favorite is snowmen.  Grandma and Grandpa Williams have a big front yard.  It was like the whole neighborhood got together to see which house could build the most snowmen.”

“He’s never built a snowman,” Grace said sadly.  “There wasn’t enough snow in Seattle last time.”

“Wait,” Danny said.  “Are you telling me I actually get to build two of my children’s first snowman together?” Danny cupped the back of Charlie’s head, and then threw an excited arm around Nahele, “I get a ‘first’ with both of my boys?” 

He pulled on Nahele and shook him.  His face was wide with a smile and overjoyed at the notion of building a snowman.

Days later, after they got to New Jersey and had a huge family (and it was a huge family!) dinner, and Stella had taken them into the city to see the sights, Danny pulled all the kids outside, super early in the morning.  It had snowed, fresh and pure, and everywhere Nahele could look, it was white.  It was piled up on cars and roofs and trees and it was beautiful.  He took a picture of it on his phone from the bedroom window.

He was glad he did because as soon as they hit the front yard, the pristine white layer of snow was gone, torn up by footprints and snow angels (his first too) and a snowball fight that Steve couldn’t help but to start.

Nahele had bundled up, warm and tight.  Steve was in a jacket and strange and crazy because he seemed fine.  Danny was no different, used to these sorts of winters growing up.  But Nahele bundled.  The heavy coat Grandma and Grandpa Williams got him, a pair of gloves they loaned him, jeans and three pairs of socks, the only long sleeved shirt he owned (and he wore it every day until they went into the city and Steve bought him a ridiculous amount of I-heart-NY memorabilia.)  

And Steve’s NAVY sweatshirt.  

And he was still cold.

They made a snowman family, complete with snow-dog, ( _“Can we get a dog?” “Yeah, Steve, can we get a dog?” “We’ll talk about it later.” “Aww.” “Danny…”_ )  before Danny declared them too cold and it was time to go in.  Steve made them pose with thier (and he was quoting Steve here) “snow-brethren” but not after he and Grandma Williams shared a conspiratorial smile and brought out a god-awfully flashy Aloha shirt and laughed as Danny comically frowned.  He frowned and grumbled as Grace and Steve put it on one of the snowmen, but the moment Nahele suggested they give one of them a surfboard, Danny was back on board and they were outside another half hour trying to make it work.

They sat in the living room next to the fire after that.  It was warm and glowed and Nahele felt the bite of the cold disappear and suddenly the cold made sense.  Nahele had spent all week wondering why people would actually choose to live somewhere it got this cold (and he knew it got colder in other places.)  They warmed their hands underneath an impressive number of family photos, including all four Williams children standing in front of another snowman family with wide, happy smiles.  Nahele was sure that the photo Grandma Williams made her way out into the snow to take of them and their snowman surfers would make a good matching photograph.

They laughed, and drank hot chocolate, and Nahele understood.  Understood why Danny missed home, had been talking about being cold the whole plane ride, got excited to learn that he’d get to be there for a couple of first times building a snowman.  

You see, Steve never asked for his NAVY sweatshirt back, and Nahele was glad.  Because every time he opened his closet and saw it hanging he remembered that afternoon next to the fire, how everyone was all smiles and laughter, and the warmth of that day would settle around him, chasing away the cold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eeeyyy cheesy ending! Sorry.


	8. "Calendar"

Four kids and four parents meant a complicated system of sticky notes and fridge calendar and, of course, the sacred shared phone app.

The phone app was actually Stan’s addition to the forray.  It started so Danny could know when he’d be on trips.  He’d fill out the little calendar for when he’d be where and shared it with Danny.  Danny, in turn, would do the same and the app worked for them and Charlie.  Steve liked it so much that they added the other kids and their activities to it and Stan thought it was amazing, keeping up with them all.  He even made it out to a few of Nahele’s games because of it.  Daisy added her class and work schedule to it, and that made getting ahold of her easier on everyone.

It wasn't that complicated of a system.  The kids (meaning Nahele, Grace, and Danny for Charlie,) would write down events and practices and and and on sticky notes and stick them on this large monthly calendar Steve had printed out and then Steve would take the time, every Monday night, to update the app.

Rachel thought it was overly complicated when she finally added herself to it.  ( _ “What color do you want for you?” “Color?” “Yeah, on the app, so we know it’s your event.” “What color is left?” “Yellow.” “Fine, this is overly complicated.” “Well, four kids with four parents, what did you expect?” “Can’t we just have our own thing for Grace and Charlie?” “No, because this is easier, some of Grace’s things are Nahele’s things, and Stan doesn’t mind it.” _ )  

Danny didn’t realize just how much went into their shared family calendar until he was on the couch, recovering from being captured by pirates, begging for something to do.  He thought ‘calendar? I can totally do a calendar,’ but Steve was hesitant and Danny rolled his eyes and demanded Steve not be such a control freak but honestly?

It took him three days alone to just learn the app.  It was one thing to open it up and look at it, it was another to actually set the damn thing up.  He soon came to realize that there was no way that Steve only ever updated it just on Monday night.  He constantly updated it, Monday night was just making sure everything was right.

Danny was spending at least an hour every day on the stupid app.  Then he’d have to make notes about who was picking who up from where and when and setting up reminders and by the second week he was letting things slip and it was late and he was still poured over his phone trying to set everything up and-

“Do you want me to take the calendar back over?” Steve asked him gently.

He sat back against the headboard with a huff, setting his phone down on his night stand with force. “Yes.  Oh my god, how do you do this?”

Steve shrugged, “One of my duties at the academy was something like it.”  He smiled at Danny, “The app just makes it easier.” 

Danny huffed again, throwing a pillow down the bed to prop up his leg.  “‘The app makes it easier?’” He repeated.  “No, the app makes it excruciating.  It’s like ‘drag this here’ and ‘don’t forget to add event location!’ and ‘switch the colors or suddenly Jack’s going to my PT’ or ‘wait, where did this green thing come from? Oh, that’s Stan!’ or it’s ‘Grace would like access to change events, do you want to grant her access?  Yes.  What’s the new password, Dad?  I don’t know! It’s my thumbprint!” 

Steve rolled his eyes and silently laughed but he still leaned over and kissed Danny, just below his ear and Danny’s rant melted away.  He turned to Steve, reaching for a kiss and hummed when he got one.

“Really, babe, I didn’t know how much you do.”

“It’s not that much,” He shrugged. 

“The one time I’m giving you credit, you’re not taking it.” 

“Credit?”

“Yeah, I’m sitting here basically saying ‘you’re amazing, you’re incredible, I love you, etcetera,’ and you’re head isn’t blowing up like a bal- What?”  

Steve’s face had fallen from an embarrassed grin to blank and shocked in seconds.  Danny didn’t understand.  He was saying nothing but good things.

“You love me?” He asked softly.

Danny blinked, thinking over the words he just said, and yep.  ‘I love you’ was among them.  He hadn’t even imagined or entertained the thought of big, sweeping, ‘I love you’s so this was a nice little shock.  Danny smiled softly and nodded.

Steve slowly grinned again.

“I mean,” Danny said.  “I know we’ve said it before, but- yeah.”

“So,” Steve said, all flirty, turning so he had one arm around Danny’s waist and the other cupping his face.  “You love me.”

“Yeah, you jerk, I love you.”

Steve chuckled and then kissed Danny square on the mouth.  They deepened it, Steve’s tongue flicking against Danny’s lips.  It wasn’t fair, Steve already knew that was a weakness of Danny’s.  He needed to… He needed… He sighed into another kiss, pushing himself down flat, Steve helping him adjust before he leaned in again from above with another wet, deep kiss.

“Now wait a minute,” Danny found his wits, but not before Steve got another simple kiss in.  “I said ‘I love you,’” He motioned between the two of them for a moment, “I do think you’re supposed to say something back.”

“I am?” Steve asked innocently.  That fake innocence he’d totally adopted from Grace.  Or maybe she had adopted it from him?  It didn’t matter, they shared that particular look and Danny’s eyes narrowed as Steve bit his lip and looked up.  “What exactly am I supposed to say back?”

Danny bit his jaw lightly in retaliation, but was delighted to learn that kind of turned Steve’s brain off for half a second.  His face fell, and his eyes turned half-lidded, so he did it again and Steve dived in for another kiss, a second, a third, and oh hell, Danny lost count.

Steve pulled back, panting.  “I love you, too,” He said earnestly.  “You’ve got to know that.”

“Yeah, I know,” Danny said and Steve kissed him again, and then moved down to kiss his neck.  “I wouldn’t mind hearing it more often, though,” He joked as he ran his fingers through Steve’s hair. 

“I’ll put a reminder on the calendar,” Steve said, muffled, and between kisses.

Danny laughed at the absurdity, but would never put it past him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day!


	9. "Lie"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set somewhere after the pirates, but before Jack's adoption

“You sure you guys want me there?” Stan asked, handing Danny Charlie’s backpack.  Charlie had already climbed into the back of Danny’s car, ready to go, but Stan was holding Danny back.

“Yeah,” Danny replied, adjusting Charlie’s stuffed shark under his arm.  “Jack’s going to be Charlie’s brother.  You should be there.”

“Isn’t that a bit…” Stan struggled for words for a moment.  “Weird?” 

“Maybe,” Danny shrugged.  “But-”  He sighed.  “We’ve got to start being friends, Stan.  It’ll stop being weird eventually.”

They really, really did.  They decided, not too long ago, that they’d be be a united front against Rachel when it came to Charlie.  Danny didn’t even technically have custody of Charlie at the moment, but they were pretty sure she was being lax about it to help her own custody case.

“I thought we were friends?”

“Well, sure,” He said again, throwing pushing his seat back to sitting position, “We can say we’re friends all we want, but we gotta start actin’ like it.” 

“And ‘coming to Jack’s adoption’ is acting like it?  Danny, your parents are going to be there.”

“So?”

“I’m-” He stared off over the car with a grimace, “-your ex-wife’s husband.”

“Soon to be ex-husband,” Danny offered, then he sighed again.  “They aren’t going to judge you.  I’ll make sure of that.”

“It’s not inappropriate?”

Danny thought it over.  Maybe it was, but did it matter?  Charlie was the important person in this whole mess, not Stan, not Danny.  Charlie deserved having parents that weren’t going to fight all the time, and Danny still had hope that Rachel would clean up her act, but until then it was up to Stan and Danny to be those parents.

They had done really well since Stan’s breakdown.  Stan traveled more often than not, but on the weekends he got Charlie he was home, and Charlie came back with stories that made Stan out to be attentive and loving.  Danny wasn’t about to fight that.

“You want me and Steve come to some of your family stuff?  Because we can.  We can totally feel the awkwardness if we need to make this even.”

Stan chuckled, “It’s not about being even.  I don’t even have any family stuff for you guys to come to.”

Danny grinned, he totally had him.  “Yes you do.  Me and Steve are adopting Jack next week.”

Stan rolled his eyes, but he smiled.  “Alright, I’ll come.”

“Did you hear that Hammerhead?” Danny leaned down to talk to Charlie in the backseat.  “Daddy’s coming to Jack’s adoption party!” 

“Yay!” Charlie said, leaning forward over the back of the seat.  “There’s going to be cake!” 

“Well, if there’s going to be cake, I definitely have to be there,” Stan said with a smile.  Charlie giggled. Then Stan pulled back to Danny, “It’ll be a good trial run.” 

Danny nodded, understanding.  Sometimes you try and things just don’t work.  At least Stan was willing to try, Rachel just seemed content to… not.  He smiled as he leaned down to wave at Charlie and Danny smiled as Charlie waved back excitedly.  

“Bye Daddy!” 

“Bye buddy,” Stan said with a smile.

Danny bit his lip as Stan turned back to his own car.  “Hey,” He called after him after a moment.  “You may think we have nothing in common, but we do.”

“Yeah, I know,” Stan replied.  “We’ve got Charlie.”

“Well,” Danny started.  He had a point.  “Yeah, but that’s not what I was talking about.”

Stan looked at a loss.

“You’re not the only one she lied to,” He told him.  Realization floated across Stan’s face.  Stan studied him for a moment, still and quiet.  Something sad flittered over his face; a familiar something sad.  Danny recognized it.  “It’s a horrible thing she did but- I’ve been there, trust me, I have been there, but it doesn’t have to be that way.  That- That-,” He took a deep breath.  “That bad place.”  He grinned.  “I don’t know how else to say it.” 

Stan was quiet for only a moment longer, “You’re not the same guy I met all those years ago,” He said.

“No,” Danny said with a grin.  “No, I’m not.”  Then, after a moment, “I’m not saying you’re not alowed to be angry or whatever, but… these people?  These kids?” He gestured into the car, where Charlie was patiently waiting.  “They… they were there for me and they’d do that for you too.” 

Stan took the few steps back towards Danny, shaking his head, “Why would you-  Why would you offer me this?  Me?”

Danny shrugged.  “It’s what I needed.” 

Stan showed up to Jack’s adoption party, and then Clara and Eddie sat down and talked with Stan with wide smiles and Charlie was excited that ‘both his dads’ were at the same place at the same time and Danny…

The look on Charlie’s face?  How their family, Five-0’s, just kept getting bigger, and wider, and stronger… Danny had to forgive Rachel a little bit.  If not for her lie, then Stan would be angry and alone, and Danny and Grace would be back in New Jersey, probably going through round two of their divorce, and he’d be nowhere near his family.  His life was good, but he would not have it if not for Rachel’s lie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is what I would like to call "a scene that would never make a final, finished fic because it's awful, it's so awful." I'm sorry that I made you read it, if you've gotten this far.


	10. "Peanuts"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set in the spring, but somewhere after the kids know about Steve and Danny being together.

Baseball games were the coolest.  He got to watch ‘Hele play, and Grace played with him, and sometimes they’d get peanuts (some kids can’t have peanuts because they’ll get sick and Charlie got sick all the time but Charlie wouldn’t get sick from peanuts) and he could jump on them and smash the shells and Danno and daddy wouldn’t stop him, he could jump on them all he wanted and no one would get mad at him.

He’d jump and he’d smash and he’d rub them into the dirt.

‘Hele was up to bat, swinging his bat back and forth.  Charlie curled his fingers around the fence trying to watch as close as he could.

“Come on ‘Hele!” He yelled, because that’s what you were supposed to do when someone you knew was up to bat.  You cheered and you yelled and you wished them all sorts of luck.  Danno and ‘Mander and Uncle Chin and Aunt Kono and Uncle Lou and Sam and Grace and like everyone almost were clapping along with him behind him.

“Charlie, move back from the fence, just in case a ball comes this way, okay?” Danno told him, reaching for him.  “Come sit on my lap.”

“Okay,” Charlie said happily.  He liked sitting on Danno’s lap.  Danno would bounce his knee and he’d wrap his hands around his belly and sometimes, just sometimes, he’d tickle him until he was kicking and screaming and then ‘Mander would lean over and blow a raspberry on his belly and it was good.  He climbed up onto Danno’s good knee (he had a bad one and ‘Mander was always telling him to be careful) and watched as ‘Hele swung once, he swung twice, and then he struck out.

People clapped anyway, and Charlie watched as he threw the bat down and went into the dugout.  He didn’t think ‘Hele ever hit the ball at a game, but he didn’t understand why that was such a bad thing because he catches balls instead.

“We gotta work on that,” ‘Mander said.  Charlie didn’t know what he meant.

“Yeah,” Danno said, bouncing his knee.  “How?  He hits them all the time when we work with him.” 

“I don’t know,” ‘Mander sighed.  

Grace plopped down next to Danno.  She had brought a bunch of her cheer friends and they were all sitting together but sometimes she’d come sit with them and play with Charlie.  Sometimes she’d open peanuts for him.

“He’s nervous,” She said with a sigh, holding out a bunch of open peanuts for Charlie.

Charlie turned to look at her, “Why is he nervous?” 

They all turned to look at him and he didn’t know why. 

Grace took a deep breath, then she dropped her head to be closer to him, “Because he wants to make us proud.”

“Proud?”

She nodded, “He’s worried we’re going to stop coming to his games if he doesn’t hit the balls.” 

“But he catches balls!” Charlie tried to argue.  “He’s really good at that!”

She nodded again, “Yeah he is,” She said, then she looked up at Danno, and then to ‘Mander, “That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to make us happy.”

Charlie played with a peanut in his hands, and thought about that.  He thought about it for the rest of the game.  He yelled whenever ‘Hele went up to bat and clapped every time he caught a ball.  He tried really hard to pay attention to the rest of the game.  He got distracted though because Uncle Chin and Aunt Kono and Uncle Lou and Sam all dropped a bunch of peanut shells and he had to smash them.  He had to.  That was just a fact.

Later, when they went out to dinner and Charlie ordered mac and cheese because it was mac and cheese or tator tots and Grace said the mac and cheese was probly better for him he looked up to ‘Hele and said

“I’m proud of you,” Because that’s what Grace said he wanted.  The whole table got quiet, and Charlie wondered why, so he kept going, “You’re a really good at catching and when that runner hit you! And you didn’t move!  And he was out!  That was so cool!”

‘Hele smiled slowly, “You think so?” 

He nodded, he was sure.  “Yep.  You were better than the other team’s catcher.  He couldn’t stop runners like you can.” 

“He’s right, you know,” Danno told him.  “Anyone can catch a ball, a good catcher can stop a runner and keep hold of the ball.” 

‘Hele got quiet, and picked at his plate, and Charlie wanted to make him smile.  He was learning that about ‘Hele.  Sometimes when people told him he did good things it made him quiet.  Grace was that way too sometimes.  Charlie didn’t understand.  When people told him he did things good he felt happy.

“Are you not happy, ‘Hele?”

He looked down at Charlie for a minute, but he didn’t answer.

“Why aren’t you happy?”

He looked up to Grace, then ‘Mander, then Danno.  He looked scared.  “I’m happy,” He told him.  “I just get… nervous.”

“That’s what Grace said,” He told him.  “I like coming to your games.  I know I don’t always get to come, but I do!”

“That’s good, bud,” ‘Hele said, throwing an arm around his shoulder and pulling him in for a little hug.

“So are you happy now?”

“I’m happy you like coming to my games,” He said with a smile.  “And I’m happy you got the mac and cheese,” He said, reaching over and grabbing a fork-ful and plopping it in his mouth.  “I wanted to see if it was any good.” 

“Hey!” Charlie said, “That’s mine!” 

“You should eat it then,” ‘Hele said, reaching for another bite, “Because it’s really good and I just might eat it all.”

“No!”  Charlie said, pushing at his arm.  “I want it!  You have your own food!” 

‘Hele laughed after that, and later Danno told Charlie he was proud at him for what he said to ‘Hele and he felt happy.


	11. "Towel"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set during the Five-0 camping trip :) You know, the one with the dog attack? But before the dog attack.

It really wasn’t fair.  Danny didn’t get in the ocean often, even if he was getting in more and more often.  But when he did he’d walk around in his trunks until the sun dried him off, shirt off, chest hair fuzzy, and a single towel slung around his shoulders.  

Steve was doing his best not to get caught up in feelings.  Stability and certainty was what Nahele and Jack needed, not Steve off and chasing feelings.  They deserved that kind of focus.  Danny was convinced that they’d still end up together, and that alone was frustrating and endearing and Steve wanted to give in and run away at the same time.  Too much could go wrong, too much could happen, and then Steve would be heartbroken and alone and at least this way…

...at least this way Steve would never know the difference.

Danny, walking around shirtless with a towel around his neck was making it difficult.

You see, feelings were one thing.  He had been trained to ignore feelings and focus on a goal long ago.  Squash down fear and uncertainty and pain and just keep going.  Fear was just a mindset to ignore, a thing he could choose not to feel in order to complete his mission.  Fear can make you tense up, slow down, lose your grip, lose your footing, and you’d be falling, and you’d be dead.

He’d look at Danny and he’d be so… unsure.  Unsure was the only word.  Unsure of where they were going, that they’d do something.  Doing something about it would mean everything to Steve and then Danny would leave him because why wouldn’t he and Steve would have to drag himself out of the mud again.

Fear and uncertainty and pain were easy enough to ignore.  Focus on the tasks at hand, change diapers, cook breakfast, pick up Danny’s dry cleaning, focus on work, on cases, on the well-being of the team.  

It was the good stuff that would swipe at Steve.  The flourish in his chest whenever Danny would make a ridiculous face at Jack, or when he’d lean down to kiss Charlie’s head, or pull Nahele in for a hug, or look up at Steve with an easy grin.  The little hiccup in his heartbeat when Danny would gripe at him for some decision at work, or for getting in the shower first, or hogging the remote.  The thrill he found whenever they’d find themselves in one of their arguments, easy as breathing, and just as comfortable.

The thrill and the hope and the joy… those were harder emotions to ignore.  Fear was easy to overcome. 

Then, of course, there was the lust.

It had always been there, it seemed.  An appreciation for Danny’s arms, or ass, or how he filled a shirt, but it had always been a passing thought.  A moment of ‘yeah, I can see how people would find him hot,’ and then he was continuing on with his day.

Then they had to go and make out on New Year’s Eve and it was like every time Steve had one of those thoughts, he’d be lost in it for a little too long, imagining it, remembering it.

Like now.

With Danny shirtless, still a bit wet from the ocean, with a towel slung around his shoulders.  

“Hey boss,” Kono greeted, knocking him out of his leering. 

“Hey,” He said, handing her the sun lotion.  

This camping trip retreat had been fun, he had to admit.  He had to keep it in mind, knowing they had two allotted weekends a year for something like this.  They might have to make it an annual thing.  Having both the boys made him realize just how much Danny and Lou were giving up, both at home and at work, just to hang out with the team.  This camping trip was a nice middle.

“Permission to speak freely?”

Steve blinked once, twice, and then, “Do you not normally?” 

She grinned, “So when are you getting your head out of your ass?” 

“What?”

“About Danny.”

He rolled his eyes.  Maybe this camping trip was a horrible idea.  

“You’re staring at him like he’s a piece of steak.” 

He cleared his throat, uncomfortable, and having no idea what to say.  His eyes flitted back to Danny, who was still shirtless and still slightly wet, but the towel was around Charlie and Charlie was a burrito as Danny dried him off.

“A really… fuzzy… steak.” 

He couldn’t help but chuckle at that.  Danny was covered in hair.  He never thought he’d find himself attracted to a large amount of body hair, but here he was, itching to run his fingers over every inch of it.

“It’s just…” She sighed, “I love the guy.  He’s a brother to me,” She looked at him seriously.  “He’s going to sit back and wait for you to get your head out of your ass and he’s going to be miserable in the meantime.”  He didn’t say anything, but his face must have betrayed something because, “You’re miserable too.” 

“This isn’t just about us.”

“Oh,” She said, “Are you talking about the four kids that have flourished because they’ve had both of you full time?”

“Exactly!”

“What?”

“What if we go through with this, and then we... we…”

“You’re telling me you’re not boning Danny’s brains out because you’re worried you’ll break up?”

Steve rolled his eyes.  She was happily married, she didn’t… she didn’t… okay maybe she understood.  He sighed again.

Danny had been working so hard on trying to prove he wasn’t going anywhere.  Moving in, his pictures up everywhere, doing taxes on the kitchen table and claiming maybe the two of them needed a CPA, and talk of changing their wills, trying to get him to spend time with him alone, and spending every single night on the couch, even though their bed was so big and so empty, just because Steve hadn’t told him he could.

“What if he gets killed in the line of duty?  Or you get deployed or a bomb goes off at HQ or there’s a car accident or a plane crash or a thousand other unpredictable things?  You can’t live like that.”

“Like what?”

“Scared," She said.  

Shock ran through him, like ice down his back.  Scared.  He was scared.  Looking at Danny he was scared.  He had been trained long ago to ignore fear, to write it off as a hindrance, an obstacle.  Yet here he was, struggling with it anyway.  It was like he spent so much of his life ignoring fear that he was no longer able to recognize it when it happened to him.  He wasn't facing an enemy, or chasing gun fire, or running into a burning building.  He wasn't facing hard and dark and dangerous, he was facing easy and happy and dangerous.  A different brand of fear, but fear all the same.

He was scared.

"I'm just saying, maybe it's time you threw in the towel." 


	12. "Toys"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set somewhere after Jack's adoption, so springtime.

It was a random get together, chairs crowded around the television for a baseball game they had ordered on pay-per-view.  Danny and Nahele had drug them all into fantasy baseball, so they were all invested.  Lou, Chin, Adam, and Jerry had money on the game (Danny wanted to too, but then Steve reminded him of bills, and oh yeah, responsibilities.)  Even Grace was getting into the spirit of it all.  

Everyone except Charlie.

Now, Charlie loved baseball.  He did.  He was just better watching a game live than he was watching it on a television.  So he had gotten in trouble several times just because of sheer boredom.  Running around, screaming a bit too loudly, jumping off the bottom steps of the stairs, but it was really nothing that people couldn’t overlook since the it was pouring rain outside, but then he accidently knocked Jack down from where he was happily standing against the coffee table and he hit the ground hard.  He cried instantly, huge, deep crocodile tears in the next instant, and that’s when Danny had it.  

“Charlie!  Time out!”

“I didn’t mean to!” 

“We’ll talk about it when time out is over!” He said, pointing towards the bench in the nook.

Charlie went, looking scared.  Time out was not Danny’s favorite form of punishment.  It was basically “go away until I’m less angry” and Danny never wanted to lose his anger with his children.  Ever.  They’d have to go and sit alone with their fear and you couldn’t talk to them about it with they cried because they didn’t know why they were in trouble.

Danny only ever used time outs as a last resort.

“That was rough,” Steve said, bouncing Jack. 

“I saw, he really didn’t mean to,” Chin said, defending him.  Danny smiled at the thought of Chin defending Charlie over something small like going to time out.

He glanced over his shoulder to see Charlie sitting on the bench, chewing on his lip.  Danny’s heart hurt, but he did this, he had to wait it out.

“Time outs aren’t so bad,” Kamekona said.  “Sometimes you just need time alone.  To think about what you’ve done.”

“It’s like prison,” Flippa said.  Kamekona made a face of agreement and Danny’s heart lurched again.  

“Well,” Kono asked, hand on her stomach, “What else would you do?”

“Talk,” Danny said.  “Grace, how often did you go into time out?” 

“With you or with mom?” 

Danny blinked at that, it not even hitting him that she would have acted out against Rachel when she was littler, “With me.”

She bit her lip, thinking, “Not often.  I remember the broken glass incident.” 

Danny chuckled and then, “That’s what I’m talking about.” 

“The what?” Nahele asked.

“I broke a glass.  And not just any glass, but one of mom’s really nice glasses and I did it on purpose.” 

“And why did you do it on purpose?” Danny asked.

She looked up at him, hesitant, “I wanted you guys to stop fighting.” 

Danny pointed at her, and then back up to Kono, “We just immediately sent her to time out, instead of talking to her about what was wrong.”

“Ah,” Kono said, understanding.  She sat back into the couch, and Adam moved to throw an arm around her, pulling her close.  It hit Danny that his parenting methods were being shared.  Another kid he had influence on, and oh god, let this be the right move.

“Alright, Hammerhead!” Danny called.  “Come here.” 

Charlie came right away, face in a frown, and very still.  Danny saw Kono and Adam’s eyes on him, and he felt like he needed to do this right, and not just for Charlie.

“Why’d you go to time out?” Danny asked.

“I pushed Jack.”

“Why did you push Jack?”

“I didn’t mean to.”

“So what were you trying to do?”

Charlie chewed on his lip again, “I don’t know.” 

“Were you bored?” 

Charlie nodded.

“So that means you stop looking out for your brother?” 

Charlie’s eyes darted to Jack, who had quieted, was happy again, and was watching Danny and Charlie with wide, curious eyes.

He shook his head no.

Danny motioned towards Jack with his head, “Apologize.” 

Charlie went, leaning in close to Jack.  “I’m sorry buddy,” He said.  Jack responded by leaning forward and gently touching Charlie’s nose.  Charlie giggled, so it must have been good.

“Why don’t you go upstairs and pick out a toy to bring down here?” Danny asked.

“I’ll go with you!” Nahele offered, moving to stand up.   “I’ll help you bring whatever it is down.” 

“Kay,” Charlie said, reaching out for Nahele’s hand.  Then he turned back to Danny, “What about the toys in your room?”

Danny’s mind went immediately to Grace’s birthday presents, still unwrapped in their closet.  Maybe he had seen them bring the bags in.

“We don’t have toys in our room, bud,” Steve answered for him.

“But you guys were talking the other day!”

Yep, Grace’s birthday.  Charlie was going to go and spoil it, “We don’t have toys in our room.” 

“Yes you do!” Charlie insisted.  “You were talking about how you needed to clean them so you could play with them again!” 

Realization hit Danny somewhere around the moment he saw Steve’s face turn red.  He leaned forward and covered his mouth in embarrassment.  He watched Steve bury his face in Jack’s side, and then watched as Nahele grimaced, and then felt his own face heat up as Kono let out one, single cackle of a laugh.

“So I can I play with them?”

“No!” He and Steve said at the same time.

The whole room exploded into laughter. 


	13. "Textbook"

“I’m so very proud of you, Gracie,” Danny said over dinner, looking over her midterm report card.

“But I got two C’s.” 

“In the two classes we were worried about you failing!  C’s aren’t failing.  C’s are passing.  C’s are good and wonderful.”

“I had to have all B’s or above to go dirt bike riding with you guys,” She said sadly.

“True,” Danny said.  “So no dirt bikes, but I think passing your midterms qualifies for some kind of reward.”

She looked hopeful for a moment, “New running shoes?” 

Danny made a face, acting like he was thinking it over, “I think we can swing that.”

Grace’s hopeful face turned ecstatic, “Good.  The pair I have now are all lopsided from Purple Wonder and the walking boot.”

“We’ll go out this weekend if we don’t pick up a case, alright?”

She nodded, took a bite of her dinner, and grinned.  Then she looked up at Nahele, “What about you?”

Nahele swallowed his bite, “What about me?”

“You had to get B’s or above to go dirt biking,” She gave him a face he couldn’t quite read.  “Did you?” 

He gulped.  Grace was his best friend and he loved her, but he also knew that school being easy for him was a sore spot for her.  He got up and went to get his report card out of his backpack and then handed it to Steve all without looking her in the eye.

“Straight A’s!” Steve said approvingly.  “Look at you!”  

He took a bite of his dinner, unable to meet Grace’s frustrated face.

“Aren’t you excited?” Steve asked.  “You should be proud!”

He shrugged, not looking up.  He hated this.  It was just grades.

“You get to go dirt biking,” Steve told him.  “Are you excited about that, at least?”

“We don’t have to go,” He shrugged. 

“Of course we do!” Danny said.  “School is hard!”

He rolled his eyes, but said nothing.  School wasn’t hard.  School was easily the easiest thing about his life.  Baseball was hard, work was hard, everything with his father was hard, helping Grace and Danny to win over Steve was hard, hell, even changing diapers was hard.  School was easy.  School had rules.  You could do your work for one class in another, easy.  You could take notes and then that was all the studying you had to do, easy.  Reading assignments were easy.  Papers were easy once you learned there was an equation for them. 

School was just easy, and he didn’t deserve a day of dirt biking for something he could do in his sleep, not really.

“Maybe ninth grade was too far back for you,” Danny said.  “Maybe you should have been a sophomore.” 

He shrugged again, “I missed too much school to be a sophomore.” 

“They could have given you some kind of test,” Danny said, reaching for his report card.  “Did they put the percentages on yours like they did Grace’s?” 

“Yeah,” He said.

Danny studied it for a moment, his mouth falling open.  “You don’t have a class with less than ninety-five percent.”

He shrugged again.  School was easy, but he wasn’t about to say that out loud, where Grace could hear him.  School wasn’t easy for everyone.

“Are you bored?” Danny asked.  

Nahele looked up at that.  There were several periods during the day where he didn’t have any homework to do, and he was chapters ahead in the reading, and he’d kind of just… yeah he was bored.  But he was in school, and he had a great home, and two foster-dads that actually cared about him, and he wasn’t about to rock that boat.  You don’t just go up to your parents and say ‘hey, I’m bored at school’ and get taken seriously.

“You are, aren’t you?” Steve asked.  “Why haven’t you said something?” 

Nahele gave him a face before he could catch himself.  What exactly was he supposed to say?  ‘Hey, I think they put me in the wrong grade?’  No, Steve had enough to worry about last semester, and Grace didn’t need the extra blow to her pride this semester.  He was perfectly fine being bored, thank you very much.

Steve grabbed the report card again, looking down at something, “Are your advanced classes not hard enough?” 

They were incredibly easy.  Even the kids in his class were struggling, and they were the advanced students.  The only class that really gave him trouble was Mandarin, but even then he’d grown up around enough of the language that it wasn’t like learning a whole brand new language.  Plus, Steve knew enough to have the needed practice conversations with him from time to time.  

Easy.

“Maybe we should talk to the school, actually have you tested?” Danny suggested.

“For what?” He asked quickly.

“To make sure you’re in the right grade,” He finished.  “You said it yourself, you’ve missed a lot of school, but that doesn’t mean you were in the right grade to start with.” 

“What are you talking about?” 

“What if, years ago, you were meant to skip a grade, but it got lost in the system?”  Danny asked, then he pointed at he and Steve, “Our job is to make sure you _ don’t _ get lost in the system.  Let us do our job.”

“I’ve got three months of school left, and you want to mess me up again?” 

“Maybe not for this year, you’re right,” Danny said.  “But maybe next year.” 

“Maybe,” He agreed, but he focused on changing the subject, “So when are we going dirt biking?” 

Nahele had let the topic drop, but Grace came into his room that night.  “I may not be smart like you,” She started, sitting down on his bed with a flop.  “But I’m pretty sure you’re being stupid about getting tested to see if you should skip a grade.” 

She was a genius when it came to understanding people; she and Danny had that in common.  

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah you do.”

He did, and two months later he was taking placement exams, and a month after that Danny was walking him to the community college campus to check out the classes he could take the next fall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Just_ in under the wire at 11:30 at night lol. I also stretched the "textbook" prompt a bit too, didn't I? Oops.


	14. "Cat"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This should probably be rated T but whatever.

There were many things about himself that Steve prided himself on.  He could hit a moving target several hundred yards away.  He could tread water longer than any test ever needed him to tread water for.  He could play several songs on the guitar.  He could tell you the first and last name of every kid in his graduating class from the Academy.  

He was a pitiful drunk. 

He never knew where the line was either.  Sometimes he was such a lightweight and sometimes he could go all night.  Being drunk always snuck up on him, like one second he was fine and the next he was plowed by a steamroller and laughing about it.  Six beers?  Seven shots?  Four glasses of wine?  He never knew where the line was for him, (unless it was Jager, and then if it was Jager, he could never remember how much he had the next day anyway,) and that was impressive considering he spent his entire legal-drinking life in the Navy among sailors who all seemed to know where their lines were.  Intimately.  It always snuck up on Steve and Steve never lived it down.  

Freddie decided to make it an experiment on particular leave to find exactly what Steve needed to drink in order to be drunk, but Steve really can’t count those two weeks of drinking because he couldn’t remember a time where he wasn’t pleasantly drunk anyway so all experimentation had to go out the window.

(That hangover was spectacular.  If ‘spectacular’ was a word that meant ‘excruciating, embarrassing, with a new appreciation for people that don’t comment when you wear sunglasses indoors, and existing in an air of ‘kill me now dear god and while you’re at it make birds go extinct because they are too loud.’)

Sometimes Steve could have a whole pack of beers by himself and be fine.  Other times all it would take was a glass of wine.  He never quite knew what it would take to get him feeling good.

He did, however, pride himself on his stealth abilities.  He was like a cat.  Even while completely hammered, he could walk across a field with bells tied to yarn and not make a single one of them go off.  He knew this because this is actually something he has attempted.  He knew how to be quiet and he knew how to avoid obstacles and he knew sometimes your best offence is to not walk through a field of bells while completely sloshed. 

Danny, however, Danny was a bull in a china shop.  Who liked hearing things shatter.  And then wanted to see if maybe he could get the pieces to vibrate if he turned the volume on the subwoofer up loud enough.

“You’re going to wake everyone up!” Steve whispered quickly.  “Shh!” 

Danny giggled as he ran into another door frame.

“You’re going to be covered in bruises!” Steve couldn’t help but giggle back, his face was tight with delight and red with too much to drink.

Danny hummed, smiling wide, “You can just kiss them and make them better.”

“Sap,” Steve said instantly.

Danny giggled again and it turned into full out laughter and Steve grabbed his face to kiss him quiet before one of the kids woke up and “Shh.”

“No one is home, Steve,” Danny giggled again, talking louder.  “It’s just us and the taxi driver,” He pointed back towards the front of the house.  “But he’s gone-oh.  We left the door open.”

Steve laughed, but not because he forgot that all the kids were someplace else for the evening, and not because Danny’s wild hand movements towards the front door, but at the image that the taxi driver walked them to the door.  Full service indeed.  His laughter turned to a giggle, wondering what Danny would think about where his mind went.

“It’s a good thing the kids aren’t here,” Danny giggled while he went through the motions of shutting the door, falling around over his feet.  Steve wondered briefly where his cane was.  He was supposed to walk with it for another month, but here he was walking around like he didn’t feel the pain in his leg.

He would in the morning.

He’d tell Steve all about it in the morning.  Complain loudly, and often and

And then Steve would get to kiss him better while Danny complained underneath him and oh, how delicious the morning was already tasting and they hadn’t even gotten through the night yet.  Steve licked his lips, his eyes stuck on Danny’s pants button.  It was so far away or maybe it was really close and in Steve’s hands already open but then

“Wow, we don’t need to have sex right now,” Danny said.  “We are very drunk.” 

“Yeah, but we’re both drunk,” Steve said, kissing him.

“We’re not having sex,” Danny said seriously.  Then he pointed at him, “We have… to have... to conversation while not inebriated.” 

Steve laughed at the sentence, but followed along.  Too drunk; no sex.  That was easy enough to follow.  He leaned forward and kissed him again, because why not?

“I’m seriously, Steve,” Danny said against his mouth, pulling at Steve's shirt, slipping his tongue past his lips.  “We’re not… sex.”

“‘Kay,” Steve said simply, running his hand down Danny’s back simply because he could.  He groaned, “‘You’re seriously?’”

“Yes.  I’m very seriously.” 

Steve lost it again as he sat down on the bed.  “Don’t you mean ‘I’m serious?’”

“That’s what I said!”  He pointed at Steve again, “I’m seriously about this.”

Steve laughed again, “You said it wrong again!” 

Danny stopped, visibly thinking over his words carefully.  Then he rolled his eyes, “Whatever.” 

Steve could only laugh, “You’re cute.”

“‘Cute?’” Danny asked, outraged.

Steve nodded, pulling on his legs until he was sitting criss cross on the bed, smiling up at Danny.

“No!” Then he pointed to Steve, seriously, and Steve laughed again.  “I’m manly as hell!”

Steve couldn’t respond because Danny had grabbed him by the ears and into a pretty spectacular kiss. 

(If ‘spectacular’ was a word that meant ‘breathtaking, toe-curling, ‘why the hell did we think getting this drunk on a night when the kids aren’t home was a good idea,’ and “We can still make out right?” “Yeah, we can still make out.” “Seriously?” "Shut up and kiss me." "Sir, yes sir.") 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may or may not be feeling too good this particular evening. :)

**Author's Note:**

> If you've gotten this far, you're awesome and I love you.
> 
> Please note, while more in this series is going to happen, this challenge will not. I failed fantastically and am posting things to this series two years later. OOPS. :D


End file.
